Archive for the ‘kit’ Category

Josie had designed a great cover for the soldered journal class but I wanted to make mine into a memory book of my art classes this year so after emailing Josie for dimensions (because it was an option for all of us to design a cover ourselves if desired) I made my front image the week before class.

I had decided a map – well 6 maps – of the areas I would (or have been) in for taking classes would be good! Its a fun year – ribbonwork with my favorite Aussie – Helen Eriksson, attending Art Unraveled, attending Art and Soul, attending the International Quilt Festival. The cover shows up with my class project!

Class itself – Josie and Kay made soldering easy. Kay was a stickler on getting that tape down (burnishing). At first I thought it was overkill. But since we broke for lunch and came back to start soldering – well I could instantly see places where the tape had not STUCK! And Josie has this neat trick of tapping the surface as she goes – makes for a cleaner look. I, of course, forgot that for part of it and boy did it make a big difference!

Did I mention we patina’d? Fun and a great way for beginners like me to blend in less than perfect soldering. Thank you Josie!

Evening Class – Buckled Memories

The class description missed a few key things – mainly we were transferring the photo to LEATHER! That might have brought in a few more students. Dorothy was a great teacher – it was an evening of challenges for her for sure and she handled it like a pro.

The whole project was an interesting concept. I had thought they were just frames and so had planned on grouping three together (I still have to finish this project) into a shadow box. Everyone else were making pendants to hang on a chain. So Dorothy taught us Richard Salley’s staple method and her original method of wiring the buckles to hang on a chain also! I learned a lot that night. One thing I learned (and Dorothy did also, lol) is that the tongue of the belt buckle comes in various thicknesses and I had the thickest Dorothy had ever seen (you see you have to cut that part off!). That took me quite a while to cut off. So here is my photo – this is not a done transfer though because I had the wrong type of paper. I will post later when I have it done:

My roomie had Susan’s class on resin that day and produced this:

The first piece is actually a ring made with the resined papers – really nice! The second piece is actually Susan’s work.

I have been keeping up my decorations until I photoed this. Time to switch since we are in March already. I did, of course, have to make more than one. So now I have one extra to make into a gift next year.

Here was the kit contents:

I didn’t use all of them, but most. Not sure my photo does it justice:

Since I made two I added a bit of my own supplies into the kit. Loved digging thru treasures!

Another kit – I think I have a lot of these! Anyway this is from Jenni Bowlin. Alot of times I like the kits for general supplies but this one is too cute as she designed it for me not to complete it now.

Kit:

note: the key was from another item I ordered from her this month…

So it took all of a half hour to do this kit. Got to love the speed of it all! Jenni sprayed hers with blackboard paint – I think I will do that also, but for now here it is:

I got chalkboard spraypaint! Found at Joanns etc and used a coupon for it. They only had black, but I think its also available in green. And at Walmart, while I found no chalkboard spraypaint, I did see spraypaint to make something magnetic. Go figure!

Another kit from French General! Not sure they provided everything I needed in this kit – I borrowed headpins from another kit. But I got this kit so long ago that they might have been outside the kit (although I have never seen that before with a French General kit).

One thing I am learning WYSIWYG – not true here. FG seems to cut back on the supplies in the kit – it does not quite look like/contain all the QUANTITIES that are in the photo and instructions in the book.

Here is mine and I used everything in the kit!

Total time for this: 2 to 3 hours

Lessons learned – LOVE how they make the simple loops for attaching! I am going to use this technique again. Just goes to prove to myself that I need to MAKE THINGS from the books I have to really LEARN. Just reading doesn’t always get the message across.

Another kit from French General. (What can I say – I love the jewelry and love kits!)

They don’t sell this one anymore – probably because the blue drops are vintage (and come with the loop already done – YEA!!! Very FAST project.) But if you look at the Blood Red Necklace on their website its similar and they just buy regular drilled drops now and make the necklace that way.

So anyway – on this one everything was in the kit – including TONS of the blue drops. I am going to have to make some earrings out of some of the drops to match this necklace.

Here is the photo:

And here is a better photo with this great egg and related easterish stuff !

Time it took: 30 to 50 minutes! (Love this idea!)

I have managed to buy some crystals (not swarvorskis though) that come prewired – just need to find the chain so I can make some more of these. Simple and very effective!

Coral Charm Bracelet – Another French General kit (oh their website is http://www.Frenchgeneral.com). This is also from their book French General Jewelry . That book is good purchase. By the way they are selling the storyboards used in the book on the website also. Great story boards, its just I have so many of the “pieces” used on the boards (and they are expensive) so I can pass on those!

First, French General does kit it very cute…it comes like this:

A photo of the kit contents:

Tools used for the project while in work (the glue is off to the side and not pictured – I usually use E6000 or something similar but here I used Weldbond – curious how it will hold up!):

The card you can barely see is from Urbanmaille – love that company and their kits. Also that postcard with a picture of all the size rings is worth so much to me. Makes my life so much easier. Now in chainmaille the gauge of the wire makes a big deal so just knowing the ring size isn’t enough, but for this pattern and following the instructions in the French General book it worked. And here it is virtually finished – I could not get a good photo in the evening so hopefully I will replace this soon!

I thought I best get this project done since its a calendar for THIS YEAR. If you haven’t checked out Jenni Bowlin – here is a link to her site http://www.jennibowlin.com/. I love the Create section. This was January’s kit (which I have on auto shipment).

Simple process – glue cover on front, hole punch thru cover and calendar pages, use these great WHITE rings – I have only ever seen them in the standard silver. Decorate the front – I did not use the flower because I need to set it flat against the wall.

Jenni suggested a photo be added each month to document the year and that is the way I am going.